Truck trailers continue to become more complex with time as freight hauling companies seek to reduce operating cost, maximize vehicle up time, and gather more data about how their loads are moving around the world. This means the addition of an ever increasing number of sensors and communication equipment to facilitate more monitoring of important trailer functionality.
Government regulations dictate which of the trailer components must be operational while the trailer is in transit on a public highway. For example, the stop, left and right turn signal, tail, license, clearance, side marker, and identification lights must be operating. However, because of the vibration, moisture, and other aspects of the fairly harsh environment trailers generally operate in, lamps may burn out or succumb to shock, vibration or other physical damage, or trailer wiring may corrode or be damaged causing weak or failed electrical connections. All of these can result in the failure of trailer lights, and other important trailer components such as sensors, actuators, and electronic control circuitry. Failures such as these can result in more downtime, lost profits, and in some cases fines imposed by law enforcement if the failures go undetected until they are found in an inspection.
Products and systems exist for alerting operators and maintenance technicians that critical components of a truck tractor or trailer are failing, or have stopped working altogether. However, in some cases, these systems may require an extensive retrofit of the trailer wiring and the installation of expensive sensors and control circuitry to accommodate an ever increasing number of more and more sophisticated trailer components. This also may result in added down town and increased cost and complexity for installers and maintenance crews.